Bev Butkow proves that you don’t need paper to make a collage

USING A COMBINATION OF OIL PAINT, COLLAGE AND ASSEMBLAGE/SCULPTURE, BEV CREATES HIGHLY FRAGMENTED FIGURATION WHICH OFTEN VEERS TOWARDS ABSTRACTION AND PATTERN.

Through her depictions of girls in states of striving and submission, she deals with gender inequalities and the duality between Belonging and Exclusion, between fragility and strength. Strongly referenced in her practice are method, transparency, layering, line, shape, process and repetition of images.

As a relative newcomer to the industry, Butkow has managed to mark her place in the South African art industry with a successful solo exhibition at Lizamore & Associates Gallery, a Merit Award in the SA Taxi Foundation Art Award and selection as one of nine “Young Talented Artists” for the Fresh Produce Exhibition and mentorship programme at Turbine Art Fair 2015.

Butkow was born in Johannesburg, holds a degree in Chartered Accountancy from Wits University, and is a self-taught artist, obsessed with learning and innovation. She works from the Bag Factory in Newtown, Johannesburg, blocks away from where, decades before, her grandfather peddled eggs at the Fresh Produce Market.

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